October 26th-October 30th

It was pretty much plain sailing all the way to Kuala Lumpur (KL), which was good; we were in need of a normal journey. We were dropped off in the middle of KL by a building site and got a cab to our hostel. Our hostel was called the Bodhi Lodge and from the outside it looked pretty ominous. However it may well have been the best place we have stopped at so far, and mainly for 1 reason, GeeGee. She was the woman that owns the hostel and she was incredibly helpful and funny. After we dropped our bags off she explained everything we needed to know about getting round KL. Now that might not seem like a great deal but KL has a monorail, an underground, an over-ground and a bus network.

We worked out our route and headed for the city centre. We journeyed through the streets of Kuala Lumpur past hundreds of shops and restaurants dodging traffic and people as we went. Now KL has about 6 shopping centres, and each one is bigger than the one that came before it. GeeGee had told us about a prestigious shopping centre called 'star city' with some peculiar toilets. Star city was for the richest of the rich and we both looked ratty as we entered looking for the toilets. We headed all the way down to the basement floor full of swanky restaurants and a guy playing a grand piano. They had even painted the escalators red to look like plush carpet. We found the toilets and entered. Both toilets were really softly lit with granite slatted walls, in the centre of the toilets were attendants. In the ladies there was a women spinning a wheel to pump water, in the gents there was a man pulling on long wooden poles to pump the water. We thought this was really odd; they happily let us take photos (see photos) .We journeyed on towards the newest mall called The Pavilion. This place had probably a thousand shops spread across 8 floors. However one shop stood out more than any other. This one shop was The DC shop. The DC shop had loads of merchandise based on Superman, Batman etc. Including the actual suit worn in 'Superman Returns'. Declan was very happy and even considered buying a limited edition jacket, until he remembered he wouldn't need a jacket for over a year (haha in your face).

After nearly an hour searching high and low in 'The Pavilion' for the sky bridge, we finally gave in and asked at an information counter. The women told us it was right around the corner and we huffed off bemoaning the lack of a helpful sign. Seriously though, apart from needing semi skimmed milk, the Malays also really need to start signposting things, it's beyond a joke. We headed off along the sky bridge towards the KLCC as it's called. We'd call it the Petronas Towers. We got there just in time to watch the fountain light show they have every night at 9 o'clock. We watched as hundreds of different coloured water fountains 'danced' along to music. We took some photos of the Towers and set about navigating our way home. We had entered the city in the late afternoon on the bus but as it was late decided to take a safer route back. We ended up getting the monorail and the train and still walked about 20 mins back to the hostel Kuala Lumpur is huge. We were shattered and just wanted to go to bed. GeeGee on the other hand had other ideas and decided that she would introduce us to two other people stopping there. GeeGee explained that Adi and Grace were going sightseeing the following morning and we decided to all go together.

We woke up and got a combination of different transports to the Batu Caves. The Batu caves are caves, but somehow they are high up in the middle of a mountain. At the foot of the caves is an enormous golden statue of Muruga, with whom the caves are dedicated. We had to climb 272 steps to the entrance of the caves high up in the mountain. The caves are used as a place of pilgrimage where they have built a Hindu temple. The caves are also home to a family of monkeys. We looked around and decided against doing the dark cave tour. We then had to climb all the way back down. L

We journeyed on. We had to get the train back to central KL and then out the other side towards our next stop. We were heading out towards the political capital of Putrajaya. Putrajaya is a purpose built city 25km outside of the Capital. There is a tour that runs every afternoon around the city and we had to wait an age before it arrived. We hadn't eaten for the whole day and the only place to get food from was a tiny bakery. Malaysia would seriously benefit from a 'Greggs'. Any way Mel enjoyed a curry pasty and Declan suffered by having a 'hotdog'. Not a normal hotdog, this was a frankfurter inside a donut. The time for the tour came and went and we still waited. Eventually our tour guide showed up looking like an Asian Colonel Sanders. As the bus approached the station he obviously didn't see a blindingly obvious overhanging roof. He turned too sharply and crashed straight into it, destroying the top of the bus, which nearly punctured his air con tanks, and sending tons of glass flying at the people waiting. We were some of those people and had to dart out of the way as the roof come crashing down. He literally shrugged off the whole incident and we all got on the bus wondering how much over the limit this guy was!!

As we toured around the city we were told the story of the 10 year old city. In Putrajaya they have terra-formed the arid desert into an oasis. They even built a 400 hectare lake. The lake cools the whole area down and ensures that it rains most afternoons. The city houses all the government buildings needed to run Malaysia it also features a massive mosque and convention centre shaped like a flying saucer. The Prime Minister's office makes Downing Street look like a Wendy house, and he even has his own mansion built on the shore of the lake. The whole city is spaced out and connected by a series of fancy looking bridges designed using different architectural style. As we were waiting to get the train back the weather changed from baking hot to apocalyptic. We were caught in the weather created by the building a lake. Now this wasn't any old shower of rain, it was lashing it down, and the thunder and lightning that accompanied it was petrifying. For half an hour it just kept getting louder and closer, flashing and banging. Scary stuff. After a much needed sit down we hopped in a taxi to an area of KL called Little India. Little India is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. We ventured up and down the roads before eventually stopping for a bite to eat. We ate authentic Indian food and had a few drinks.

The next day GeeGee took us on a rural tour of Kuala Lumpur, with her insane friend!!! Before starting our day tour we all went for breakfast. GeeGee took us to one of the local restaurants where we tucked into curry for our breakfast. Once we were all feed and watered we set off out of the city....about an hour later we arrived at our first stop, which was an old British fort overlooking the strait of Melaka, which was at the top of Bukit Malawati Mountain. There was a lighthouse at the top; however we weren't allowed to go to the top of the lighthouse as you needed to pre book, which was a shame. On the same sight there was also a mosque and a tribe of monkeys that were different to the ones we have previously seen. These monkeys are called silver leafed monkeys. After spending some time looking around we started our journey to the next stop, a rice field. We stopped off in a large area of land which stretched as far as the eye could see that was full of rice paddies. GeeGee asked if we would like to stop there and despite our underwhelming response we stopped to have a look! Following a few pictures and a little look around we got back in the car and off we went. Our next stop was at a local market that was selling fruit. There was a variety of fruits and the locals gave us tasters of some of these. Declan tried the 'water apple', which tasted nothing like a Granny Smith!! We continued on our tour to our fourth stop, a Chinese Temple. The temple was slightly different from all the other Chinese Temples that we have previously seen. At this temple you were able to climb up a winding staircase, about three floors up, to the top of a tower. From this tower you could look out over the nearby rice fields and in the distance we could see a city.....not that we could be sure it was KL. We continued on to our fifth stop in our tour, to see the sunset on the nearby beach. It was a shell beach that had a path of rocks that went out into the sea. There were also several trees that had been made into tree houses. Declan was impressed with the tree houses and commented that he wanted to have one in the garden when we get home!!! Attached to the tree houses were some make shift swings, which were just as good as a park swing even they were made from ancient garden furniture, see pictures. We stayed on the beach and watched the sunset, whilst tasting the local ice-cream and climbing the rocks. Once we had watched the picturesque sunset we headed to our final destination, the fireflies. Malaysian style wooden boats rowed us out to the Berembang trees where the fireflies gather in thousands. In the dark they flash in unison and create a natural light show. We had previously been warned by GeeGee that if the local boatmen thought there were crocodiles present in the river then they would not take us to see the fireflies'!! Luckily for us there were no noted signs of crocodile activity that evening so our boatman set off rowing the four of us down the dark river!!! We were immediately able to see the fireflies and to see them flashing. Our boatman got closer and closer and closer to the fireflies, so close that we actually ended up in the bush!!! Some of the fireflies actually fell off onto the boat and on to us. The boatman also put some of the fireflies into our hands and we watched these fly off our hands and back to the trees. Once we had returned back to dry land we set off on our long journey home. Our driver decided that the quickest way home was breaking the law. We spent a large proportion of the journey on the central reservation, overtaking swathes of queuing traffic!

On our last day we headed off to China town and too see the last of the city sights. We ventured through the streets being hassled by traders trying to peddle us sunglasses and such. China town has a large market slap bang in the centre of the old town. They called this market, Central Market. We continued on and visited a few more temples and even a mosque, where Mel had to suit up again. We finished our city day trip back at the Petronas towers so we could compare the day to the night. We ended our time in KL in a Chinese night market, where Declan spent the entire time holding his nose!! Off to bed after another day walking.

Next stop 'The Malaysian Vegas'.